The Second Most Important Match of the Season - Win or Lose!

It is almost 2:30 am. I am unable to sleep. Tomorrow (or today, rather) is the 2nd Round of the FA Cup. Bath City are facing fellow non-league side Forest Green Rovers.

Let's be honest: it's not a clash of the titans. It is a match that will at best be a footnote in the history of either club. If City win the match will be seen as a staging post on a route to 3rd Round glory. The 3rd round is when the Premiership clubs enter the fray. Any fixture with a Premiership club would be the most important (and lucrative) in City history. An away match with one of the bigger clubs, like Arsenal or Manchester United, would make Bath City a household name for a few days. It would also give the club enough revenue to wipe out its debt and be one of the most well financed in the league. It would be like winning the lottery.

A loss for City, though, will still be a footnote, however. The victory over Grimsby Town was three weeks ago, but I still think of it constantly. A disappointing performance will just mean that the Grimsby Town match is the high water mark of the season. It was a moment so packed with joy we are already quickly turning it into folklore. We will sing of our victory at Grimsby for as long as our memories hold, but details of a loss tomorrow will grow fuzzy quickly.

To some extent Forest Green Rovers fans are in the same position (although they have not taken a league scalp in their run so far). So, while this is without doubt the most anticipated match in my nearly two years of following Bath City, it is not one I will dwell on for long. Neutrals will not likely dwell on it at all. The national media will not be bothered which of two non-league clubs is victorious. They will only take interest in either club if they draw a big name in the third round. Tomorrow's game will be out of the spotlight, tucked into the fine print of the Sunday sports pages.

Right now, at 2:30 am, it is a desperately important match. Come tomorrow afternoon roughly two thousand fans will, for two hours, cheer themselves hoarse, bite their nails, jump up and down, be totally and utterly alive. And then, whatever the result, we will move on.